In the Old Testament, a trio of people are often cited as deserving special protections from God and God’s people … The fatherless, the widow, the orphan. Often, the foreigner is added to this list.

God knew these people were at risk in the society of the Old Testament … at risk to be marginalized, neglected, oppressed, victimized, even killed.

And so God commanded his people to take special care of these particular people in their midst. He gave special commandments, even made special rules that protected them, gave them chances to enter mainstream society again, helped them escape the noose of generational poverty, protected them from oppression and violence.

And these rules spoke to God’s people and said, “I care for this group of people in a special way, and if you follow me, you must care for them, too!”

Who are the marginalized among us today?

Might they not fit into this same descriptive trio (or quartet)? The fatherless, the widow, the orphan, the foreigner.

It matters not your political persuasion, if you are a follower of God, you are to live in such a way that you protect the marginalized, speak up for them, watch out for them, care for them, serve them, give to them, pray for them.

Often, when confronted with the marginalized in our midst, we hope for someone else to help them.

Annie Dillard addresses this common deferral of responsibility:

“There is no one but us. There is no one to send, not a clean hand or a pure heart on the face of the earth or in the earth --- only us … unfit, not yet ready, having each of us chosen wrongly, made a false start, yielded to impulse and the tangled comfort of pleasures, and grown exhausted, unable to seek the thread, weak, and uninvolved. But there is no one but us. There has never been.”

I have often wondered how the church, which was founded on amazing grace, became a place of judgment for people struggling with sin.

Which is really all of us, if you think about it.

Here is a thought:

I think the church moves toward judgment of those outside our walls because it is much easier to judge others than it is to love, and to submit our own darkness to the transforming ways of God.

And so we judge. Despite what the Scriptures tell us is our main job.

Paul says that love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:10)

He says that the only thing that really counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6)

The writer of 1 John says:

“We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” (1 John 4:19-21)

Jesus said:

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:35)

Tonight our A Way of Life class is discussing the chapter from the first manual on worship.

This reminded me that I have Mark Labberton’s book “The Dangerous Act of Worship: Living God’s Call to Justice” on my shelf. So I opened it up and started to read …

Whoa...

I am going to share some of his thoughts over the next few days.

Expect to be disturbed, but in a good way.

Labberton is the new President at Fuller Seminary and I have loved everything I have seen from him. He has a huge heart for Jesus, for the church, and for the radical demands of the Gospel.

Here are some of his opening thoughts:

“When worship is our response to the One who alone is worthy of it – Jesus – then our lives are on their way to being turned inside out. Every dimension of self-centered living becomes endangered as we come to share God’s self-giving heart.

Worship exposes our cultural and even spiritual complacency toward a world of suffering and injustice.

In Jesus Christ, we are called into a new kind of living. Through the grace of worship, God applies the necessary antidote to what we assume is merely human – our selfishness.

Worship sets us free from ourselves to be free for God and God’s purposes in the world.

The dangerous act of worshipping God in Jesus Christ necessarily draws us into the heart of God and sends us out to embody it, especially toward the poor, the forgotten and the oppressed.”

Well now … Do you think his definition of worship might be just a tad bigger than ours?

This is what I read today in Mark Labberton’s book, The Dangerous Act of Worship:

“At a worship service I attended a couple of years ago, my attention was drawn to the enthusiastic worship leader. He opened our time with prayer, asking God to meet us … Then he turned to face forward, standing just in front of the first row of worshipers with his eyes closed and the band playing. He lifted his hands to God and offered a joyful noise to the Lord.

That’s when I really took notice, for as he sang … he kept stepping all over the feet of the people behind him. Not just once or twice, but repeatedly … he kept ‘tromping in the Spirit.’ No apology. No sign of acknowledgement.

He was just praising God while oblivious to his neighbor.

This illustration metaphorically and practically depicts a significant part of our problem [with worship.]

I have no doubt the worship leader would say that what he was doing was unintentional … He was just so caught up in his own experience of worship that he lost track of others.

In worship, he lost his neighbor. That’s exactly the problem.

For all of our apparent passion about God, in the end, much of our worship seems to mostly be about us. We presume we can worship in a way that will find God but lose track of our neighbor.

Yet it was this very pattern in Israel’s worship life that brought God’s judgment.

Biblical worship that finds God will also find our neighbor.”

Have you ever thought about this?

Does your worship help you find your neighbor?

Or do you worship God, all the while figuratively stepping on your neighbor’s toes?

I always put my mat there, right next to the teacher, in the hopes some of her beautiful energy will transfer itself over to me. Plus, I always need to sneak a peek at her so I know what I am supposed to do.

But on Monday night I arrived late to the class so I had to put my mat in a different spot.

The class was crowded and it felt weird to be out of place.

As the class began, the instructor came around with some lemon essential oil that she places in our hands to help "wake up our senses" before class. Usually, she is completely silent as she does this.

But, as she bent down to put the oil in my palm, she whispered these words:

"Oh, there you are..."

She saw me.

She knew I was in a different spot.

But she found me, nonetheless, and she let me know that she saw me; that I mattered.

She sounded happy and relieved to see me, to find me, to know where I was in the room.

I cannot even describe what those 4 words did for my soul.

I was looked for. I was seen. I was known. I was appreciated. It mattered that I was there.

This is one of the truest essences of "blessing" someone -- simply to see them and to be delighted.

And then to express that delight to the person somehow.

Reminds me of my favorite biblical blessing:

"The Lord bless you and keep you,

the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

the Lord turn his face toward you

and give you peace." (Numbers 6:24-26)

Who can you bless today?

All you have to do is look for them, see them, and say something as simple as, "Oh, there you are..."

If you seek God alone, then that which is from God in others will come alive, whether or not you can see it.

Jesus sees what is of God in others, even if it is still hidden as a tiny seed.

This is the gospel you must proclaim.

Preach it simply.

Jesus values each person; he sees their dignity as God created them.

He came to rid every person of shame and self-contempt, of the feeling that they are nothing and can do nothing, the feeling that they have ruined everything and nothing can change that, the feeling that all is hopeless.

I am so shocked and saddened by the death of 9 saints from a South Carolina church.

Such hatred.

Such sadness.

Such a waste of beautiful human life.

I listened to the relatives of these victims speak at the bond hearing for the young murderer.

And I stood at attention in my kitchen as I heard their agonized voices whisper words of forgiveness to this young man who was so filled with hate and ignorance... And who shot old ladies, and a state senator and pastor, at a simple Bible study.

After the relatives were done speaking, one reporter asked a commentator what his reaction was to these amazing comments, and he said:

"Their minister (who was one of the men killed) did an amazing job pastoring these folks. These people responded to hatred in the name and the power and in the way of Jesus, the great forgiver and reconciler."

I smiled, even in the midst of my tears.

So, so, so right.

I continued to stand in attention (and reverence) in my kitchen for quite some time... just pondering these responses in my heart.

Oh, that I would have this kind of response in the face of earth-shattering hatred.

We are high up in the skyflying over the Sahara,eating ice cream the colorof the sand below.We are encapsulated from it.We have transcended it.We do not have to plod throughits extremes with chafed skinand parched mouths while staringat the endlessness ahead of us.We know a journey of ease,exempt from the experiencethis desert has exactedsince the dawn of time.Our deserts are different now.

The Marginalized

Jesus had (and still has) a special place in his heart for those on the margins... and more often than not, he could be found offering an invitation into his Father's kingdom to those who had been marginalized by the world, and even by the religious elite. In what ways does God ask us to pay special attention to those pushed off to the side? Who are the marginalized of our day?